Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Kaschke v. Gray & Hilton....you thought is was all over?...it is now!

After nearly 4 years of extensive litigation, Lord Justice Thomas today at a hearing in Court 68 of the Royal Courts of Justice refused Johanna Kaschke leave to appeal against her libel case being struck out.

He supported previous rulings that the difference between what Ms Kaschke has admitted to be true and what she thinks is libel, is so insignificant to be an abuse of a full Jury trial.  It is simply not worth the candle.  Even if she was to win (and of course she would not) her damages would only be minimal at very best.

Why this statement of the bleeding obvious has taken such a long time to come about at such a huge cost to the public purse is another matter.

This is now the end of the matter for Alex Hilton and myself.  Ms Kaschke of course intends to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).  However, in the extremely unlikely event that the ECHR consider this a case worth examining it will be the British Government who will have to defend it not Alex or I.

Fellow defendant Dave Osler also had the case against him kicked out last year.

Many thanks to Robert Dougans, David Allen Green (Jack of Kent) and former members of the CCCP Young Pioneers for their outstanding help and support. Also last but not least thanks to Stroppy and Montrose. 

The final irony (of many) in this is that Ms Kaschke claims that she got involved in British Politics because she was worried as a Council tenant about her security of tenure. She then made her long march from Labour to Respect to CPGB to CPB to Labour (again briefly) then to the Conservative Party.  Her beloved David Cameron and his Tory-led government is now responsible for introducing changes to the Housing benefit system which will mean that Council tenants such as herself who under occupy their homes (have more bedrooms than they are deemed to need) will face being evicted.

Picture from last July when case first dismissed.

UPDATE: Check Index against Censorship press release and David Allen Green's post in the New Statesman about the case "with no merit whatsoever".

UPDATE: ECHR decision

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marvellous news, John. I think it's difficult for people to imagine quite how draining and dismal it is to ahve something like this hanging over your head for so long. It's not as if we can always rely on the British judiciary to exercise good sense, but at least on this occasion we have the right decision, if not justice. This Kaschke person should be paying you damages for time spent and distress.

Dave said...

Two world wars and two libel trials ... doo dah, doo dah

bob said...

John - I didn't know about this case. Sheer madness. I had a look at the woman's blog site and she makes no mention of the case but reading her rants she is clearly a strange person with a view of Tower Hamlets that I cannot recognise as someone who has worked there for 30 years.

Although the law has got it right this time, it should never have gone to Court in the first place. Who was funding her?

Anyway, congratulations on the win and have a cold one on me when we next meet.

Anonymous said...

And how do you know about her living arrangements?

John Gray said...

Cheers Bob

Cheers Bob - it will of course be a large cold one!

Search "Gray or Hilton or Osler" on her blog and you will come across gems such as "Incumbent Labour councillor worships machinegun wielding hero
Jul 13"

She did it all for free! You funded her.

Tories - what do you expect?

John Gray said...

Hi Neil anon 20.42

Because she said so.